MONTREAL — Live in your end, die in your end. That’s the takeaway from Friday’s Game 2, 4-3 overtime defeat to the Canadiens the Rangers can chew on as they prepare for Sunday night’s fulcrum match at the Garden.
For though it was a gutty performance from the newly minted Black-and-Blueshirts, who were credited with 45 hits through 40 minutes, 61 through regulation and 74 overall, they just spent far too much time living on the edge through a third period in which they desperately attempted to protect a 3-2 lead they had earned on Mats Zuccarello’s deflection at 14:47 of the second.
They almost made it, almost made it through customs with a 2-0 series edge on their declaration forms. They came within 17.3 seconds, in fact, of holding on after holding on and holding on and holding on, until Tomas Plekanec got one from in front with the Habs swarming with the extra attacker and defender Nick Holden defenseless after having lost his stick.
The Blueshirts were pinned in their own end for one shift after another, incurring one icing violation after another throughout a period in which they were outshot 18-9 and out-attempted 33-12. The Rangers were able to withstand the pressure, sometimes coolly and sometimes chaotically, as per the sequence in which Henrik Lundqvist went below the goal line to defend against Max Pacioretty, only to lose his stick and be forced to make a pair of stops when the puck came out to the top with 3:15 to play.
Yes, they almost made it. But they couldn’t run out the clock, couldn’t get that one more clear. After the Habs tied the game, they squared the series 1-all when Alexander Radulov got one from the goalmouth while shrugging off an MIA Mika Zibanejad to beat The King, truly magnificent under fire in facing a career-high 58 shots, at 18:34 of an OT that seemed a continuation of the third period.
“From about the 10-minute mark of the third we were on the wrong side of the momentum for way too long,” Derek Stepan told The Post following an intense, entertaining and draining night of hockey. “From my standpoint, it came down to the fact that we stopped making passes.
“When it’s the playoffs, you want to make hard plays, but you have to be able to execute your plays too and we didn’t do that.”
Hence, seven icings in the third period. Thus, 15 third-period faceoffs in their own end over the final 20 minutes of regulation as compared to one — one — in Carey Price’s zone.
The Rangers honored their skill set during the regular season in playing pretty hockey. There was nothing pretty about this one, though one might observe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because you could have framed what the Blueshirts did and hung in the hockey combat section of their portfolio.
Brendan Smith played with an attitude. Ryan McDonagh played with a chip on his shoulder. Marc Staal was in the middle of everything. Zuccarello played big, and that is no oxymoron. Rookies Jimmy Vesey and Brady Skjei both played as if they had been there 1,000 times before. J.T. Miller played showed miles and miles of heart as did the relentless and no longer underappreciated Jesper Fast.
But though that kind of gumption is necessary at this time of the year, the Rangers need to sprinkle in some skill plays now and again. This is not the Cotillion Ball, but at some point you do have to dance with the ones who brung ’ya.
“I don’t want to be misunderstood,” Stepan said. “You have to step up and play physically in the playoffs, but we’re built around speed and execution, coming with speed with passes out of the D-zone.
“The playoffs are a different brand of hockey, but as a group I believe that we have to try not to change our identity. You have to be able to do what you do best.”
The Rangers just couldn’t quite make it to the finish line, just couldn’t quite withstand the relentless pressure the Habs brought and the Blueshirts brought on themselves. They hung on and hung in, even while getting essentially nothing at all throughout the night from Zibanejad and Chris Kreider for a second straight night.
So it is best of five now with three at the Garden, no advantage whatsoever for the team that has had so much trouble on Broadway. And while the Rangers are going to have to bring their Black-and-Blueshirts to the arena, they also had better to remember to unpack the skill set that was missing most of the way from this memorable Game 2.